RIP Gerard Doyle, Friend, Coach, Athlete

Our friend, fellow athlete & club coach Ger Doyle sadly passed away on Thursday, 8th June. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him in his personal, professional and athletic life.

Ger has been an Inishowen AC member and coach for a number of years now and his enthusiasm, motivation and determination for the kids in the club was unparalleled. His heart was very much in the right place and he loved nothing more than seeing our young athletes train and compete. He was a great advocate of acknowledging the efforts of all the kids, regardless of ability or whether they competed or not, if you came to training every week that was good enough. In his book everyone was equal.

At both training and competition Ger loved nothing more that motivating the kids psychologically and had a great belief in everyone having the right mental attitude. It was great to listen to him get into their heads and prepare them for competing.

Ger was a talented athlete in his youth and drew on this experience when coaching the youngsters. He had taken up running again recently and competed our own half marathon in an impressive 1½ hours. He was instrumental in drafting our recently adopted club constitution and was a very active committee member, working tirelessly on our future plans for new club facilities.

Ger was a gentleman with a fantastic intellect, wit and passion. He will be sadly, sadly missed by all that had the good fortune to meet him. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Mary and two children Hannah and John James at this sad time.